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Unlock This CourseEmile Durkheim (1858-1917) was one of sociology's founding fathers who helped establish it as a respected academic discipline. His life and work were deeply influenced by the dramatic social changes happening in Europe during the 19th century. Understanding Durkheim's background helps us make sense of his theories and why they remain important today.
Key Definitions:
Emile Durkheim was born on 15 April 1858 in Épinal, France, to a family of devout Jews. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all rabbis, which gave young Emile a strong sense of community and tradition. Though he later became non-religious, this Jewish background influenced his interest in social bonds and moral authority. Growing up as part of a religious minority in France also made him sensitive to questions of social integration and outsider status.
Durkheim was an excellent student who broke family tradition by not becoming a rabbi. Instead, he pursued secular education at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris. There, he studied alongside other future intellectual giants like philosopher Henri Bergson. After graduating, he taught philosophy in several French schools before travelling to Germany to study their advanced methods in social sciences. This experience abroad convinced him that sociology could become a proper scientific discipline.
Durkheim lived during a time of enormous change in France. Understanding these changes helps explain why he developed his particular sociological ideas.
By the time Durkheim was born, France had already experienced the French Revolution (1789), Napoleon's rise and fall and several more revolutions. The country was deeply divided between supporters of the monarchy, the republic and various radical movements. In 1870-71, when Durkheim was a teenager, France suffered a humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, followed by a violent civil conflict called the Paris Commune. These events created a sense of national crisis and raised urgent questions about what holds society together.
France was industrialising rapidly, though not as quickly as Britain or Germany. Factory work was replacing traditional crafts, cities were growing and old ways of life were disappearing. Durkheim was fascinated by how societies maintain cohesion during such dramatic economic changes.
The influence of the Catholic Church was declining, especially among educated French people. This created what Durkheim saw as a "moral vacuum" - traditional religious authority was weakening, but what would replace it as a source of social rules and meaning?
Darwin's theory of evolution, advances in physics and chemistry and new archaeological discoveries were challenging traditional worldviews. Durkheim believed social phenomena could also be studied scientifically, not just through philosophy or theology.
The Dreyfus Affair (1894-1906) deeply affected Durkheim and revealed the divisions in French society. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer, was falsely accused of treason in a case fuelled by antisemitism. France split into pro-Dreyfus (generally progressive, secular) and anti-Dreyfus (often conservative, nationalist, Catholic) camps. As a Jewish intellectual, Durkheim actively defended Dreyfus and saw the affair as evidence of dangerous social pathologies. The experience reinforced his belief that modern societies needed new forms of moral education and solidarity not based on religion or ethnicity.
One of Durkheim's greatest achievements was helping to establish sociology as a respected academic subject with its own methods and focus.
In 1887, Durkheim was appointed to teach France's first course in social science at the University of Bordeaux. This was revolutionary - sociology wasn't yet considered a proper academic subject. In 1896, he became France's first professor of sociology. He later moved to the Sorbonne in Paris, where he trained a generation of sociologists and anthropologists. His insistence that sociology should be scientific and rigorous helped it gain credibility in the academic world.
Durkheim's major works established sociology's foundations. His doctoral thesis, The Division of Labour in Society (1893), examined how modern societies maintain cohesion. The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) outlined his scientific approach. Suicide (1897) demonstrated how seemingly personal acts are influenced by social factors. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) explored how religion functions socially. Each book tackled fundamental questions about how societies work and how they can be studied.
Durkheim's personal experiences shaped his sociological interests in important ways.
In 1887, Durkheim married Louise Dreyfus (no relation to Alfred Dreyfus) and they had two children. His family life gave him stability during his intense academic career. However, tragedy struck during World War I when his son André was killed in combat in 1915. Durkheim never fully recovered from this loss and his health declined significantly. He died in 1917, aged just 59, partly from grief. This personal tragedy connected to his sociological interests in how societies cope with death and maintain continuity despite individual losses.
Durkheim was deeply committed to France's Third Republic (1870-1940), which established democracy after the fall of Napoleon III. Republican leaders wanted to create a unified national identity not based on Catholicism, which had traditionally dominated French education. As an education advisor to the government, Durkheim developed theories about how schools could teach civic morality and create social solidarity in a secular society. His work on moral education wasn't just theoretical - it directly influenced France's school system. This shows how Durkheim's sociology was connected to practical concerns about building a stable democratic society during turbulent times.
Durkheim didn't work in isolation. He was part of a vibrant intellectual community that helped shape his ideas.
Durkheim gathered talented students and colleagues who developed his ideas in sociology, anthropology and religious studies. This group, sometimes called the "French School of Sociology," included Marcel Mauss (his nephew and an important anthropologist), Maurice Halbwachs (who studied collective memory) and Robert Hertz (who researched death rituals). Together they founded the influential journal L'Année Sociologique in 1898, which helped spread sociological methods and findings.
Durkheim engaged in lively debates with other thinkers of his time. He critiqued psychologists who reduced social phenomena to individual psychology. He disagreed with economists who saw society as just a collection of self-interested individuals. He also challenged historians who focused on unique events without looking for patterns. These debates helped Durkheim clarify what made sociology distinct from other disciplines and why it was necessary for understanding modern life.
Durkheim's life and work continue to influence how we understand society. His emphasis on social cohesion, the role of shared beliefs and the scientific study of social patterns remains central to sociology. When we study topics like community breakdown, religious change, or educational reform, we're building on foundations that Durkheim laid during France's turbulent transition to modernity.
Durkheim's theories weren't created in a vacuum - they responded directly to the social problems and changes he witnessed in late 19th century France. This reminds us that sociological thinking is always connected to its historical context. When studying any sociological theory, we should ask: what social conditions was this person responding to? How did their personal experiences shape their view of society? Understanding Durkheim's life and times helps us see why he focused on questions of solidarity, moral authority and social integration that remain relevant in our own changing world.